Neil Walker, Design Manager at Russell Homes, explains how the housebuilder is championing green-led design.
With all new housing developments comprising ten or more homes having to demonstrate a minimum 10% Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), housebuilders are having to look at their new sites through an even greener lens.
Neil Walker, Design Manager at Russell Homes, discusses how the housebuilder has adopted a green-led approach to designing its developments. It’s an approach that involves prioritising green spaces over bricks and mortar and has resulted in them receiving a UK Green Building Council-backed eco award for their commitment to championing green design.
“We’ve essentially gone back to the drawing board and reframed our design outlook. From a practical perspective, this involves identifying where the green areas are going to go and then designing the rest of the development around these core green design features, which include flowing streams and bustling wildflower meadows.”
Creating green-led communities
“The end result is something that’s not just environmentally-compliant, but incredibly special on multiple levels. We’re creating green-led communities that work for both the people who live within our developments and the local wildlife. And, more importantly, the green features we are creating now, will still be standing for many decades to come, strengthening the surrounding habitat and wildlife population in the process.
However, we aren’t just simply adding green design features for the sake of adding them. Considerable time and effort is spent on identifying the right type of features development-by-development and ensuring they are situated in the optimum location. Our aim is to always make sure these green credentials sit right in the very heart of the development; in the most useable and accessible areas where they can thrive and be enjoyed by generation-after-generation of residents.
If we can maximise the amount of green space, then we absolutely will. At one of our developments in Wincham, we’ve dedicated 41% of the site to greenery. While at another site, also in Wincham, we’ve created a green gateway from King Damson, Native Whitebeam and English Oak trees, as well as native shrub mixes. This tree-lined ‘green gateway’ boulevard has been created at the front of the development, enabling the properties to be set well back from the main road.
This site also features an attenuation pond and wildflower meadows. While at another development in Norden, we have enhanced a small brook into a stream that runs through the development, turning it into a key focal point.”
Focusing on the old and the new
“Applying a green-led design approach also involves us focusing on both the old and the new. Preserving as much of the existing habitat as we possibly can is extremely important to us. In addition to planting rows of new trees, we retain all of the protected trees and, if we can make features out of them, then we will. For example, at one of our developments in Rochdale, we designed the site layout around a cluster of trees that had stood on the site long before we arrived.
Our future vision doesn’t just involve delivering more of the same, but continuously pushing the green design boundaries from every possible angle. Over time, our vision is to create community orchards, swales, and many more surface attenuation ponds, as well as plant more wildflower meadows and native species at our future developments.”
More than just a tick box exercise
“Green housebuilding design is rapidlyevolving, providing housebuilders with an even wider range of opportunities to think outside of the box and deliver environmentally-friendly design that’s more than simply just a tick box exercise.
The new biodiversity requirements coupled with wider global net zero targets are the catalyst we all need to fully embrace green design and create communities that residents can happily call home for many years and fundamentally give the planet the care and attention it truly deserves.”
Russell Homes is an award-winning, independent housebuilder focused on developing beautiful homes in great locations across the North of England. Established in 2004, the company’s portfolio is varied and extensive, ranging from stunning contemporary beachfront residences to beautiful family homes in stunning locations with smart town centre addresses.
